HUNGARIAN RAILWAY? EXPERT HERE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 278, 14 February 1928, Page 8

HUNGARIAN RAILWAY? EXPERT HERE

TO SETTLE JNAUCKLANd ATTRACTED BY

Saxon by descent, Hun # «rt* n b birth, Rumanian by fore, of cumstances, Mr. Cornaliu, Do „' ner, former railway* expert State industrial inspector in Tra„ sylvania, is now anxious to fc," come a New Zealander. ■pROM Kolozsvar. th e capital -T Transylvania, now * ritory since the ratification XT „ Treaty of Trianon, to An.-t-i.-, ®t long journey. No one knows ? * better than Mr. Donner, who unni U* Rumanian Government charge of the railwavs - n the* 18 * area and initiated a policy of tuting Rumanians for HcngariaiSr 1 ' every office in the new State*' supervisor of railways in the’T^ 1 sylvanian city. Despite Queen Marie’s astute licity on behalf of her people Mr s?* ner is not inclined to approve politics of tlie Rumanians. ~ vv "holri_L dismissals and economic losses-?* the inhabitants of what was the most fertile portion of Hunw? followed the change of govenunaSt Mr. Donner knew of on« HiaK Court judge who, driven Transylvania and forced to live in old tramcar in Hungary f L two years, was very glad of its shelter. Income tax was demand* two years in advance. Foe the peasantry conditions were unlive, able. The Rumanians also appropriar the resources of the Transylvania, secured their and forced a foreign church, the Russian faith, upon an unwilling lace. Of a land in the Southern where every man was where income tax was only collect*! after the first year of residence, where religious intolerance was a known, Mr. Donner learned through, academic friend in London who hod visited Wembley and perused tiv literature at the New Zealand A CULTURAL ASSET To New Zealand the Donner f*aii T determined to go. The British ccnra at Kolozsvar gave his permission, th High Commissioner for the Dominic? (Sir James Parr) sent his blessing, and the Rumanian Government put* u obstacles in the way. The High Commissioner wrote to Mr. Donner, who is a Master of Arts

of Buda-Pest University, a consultiif engineer of ability, and an author i • note of mechanical works—lie is expecting an English translation of hie latest book on the engine of the motcrcar before long—saying he believed a family of the Donners’ cultural attaisments would be a decided asset !• New Zealand. The Saxon people from whom Mr. Donner is descended were & fre nation for centuries befora they accepted the Hungarian yoke. They provide a considerable section of population of Transylvania, and ha* never been affiliated with the Genoa Empire. To accept the ’rule of the Ruraaate these Saxons, recognised to havebser. one of the bulwarks of ’Western civilisation against the inroads of the Tmi meant political extinction. Many 4 those who could afford to do so ha* gone to America. ENGLISH NOT DIFFICULT English presented no difficulties to Mr. Donner's 20-year-old son. » was already acquainted with ® languages, and English was ajn®£ them. Their daughter, while not » proficient, was only a month in Aidland before she secured employ***. Mrs. Donner as yet must nsc&Sim content herself with French. ** Donner, with the characteristic enff? of his race, is acquiring the most cult tongue of all to the Continental English—with all due speed. But it remained for the second w ■ aged seven, to surprise Profess Moor-Karoly, a Hungarian patriot. When the professor greet* him in his native tongue the day, young Donner, a New Zealand of a month’s star ding, replied: Hulloa! ”